These two discs neatly bring together virtually all the most important works of Gustav Holst after the ever-popular Planets. Both are especially welcome for featuring the conducting of Holst’s daughter, Imogen, one of the most inspirational musicians I have ever known, beloved by everyone who met her and for years an invaluable amanuensis to Benjamin Britten when his health was failing.

Holst was long fascinated by Hindu literature, and the first disc opens with four haunting Choral Hymns from the Rig Veda, the second of which is a dance with tinkling harp accompaniment (Osian Ellis the superb soloist). Holst suggested that the fourth, “Hymn of the Travellers”, could be used as an overture to the main work on the disc, the chamber opera Sa¯vitri, which itself is simply a dialogue between the heroine Sa¯vitri and the figure of Death, who comes to claim her husband, Satyavan. In the dialogue, with Janet Baker at her most touchingly expressive down to whispered half-tones, Sa¯vitri wins her argument against Death (Thomas Hemsley singing offstage alongside the Purcell Singers); Robert Tear is also ideally cast as Satyavan. The seven part-songs that round off the disc date from 1925‑26, the first period when Holst could devote himself full-time to composition, a luxury he greatly enjoyed.

On the second disc, the 12 songs to words by the long-neglected poet Humbert Wolfe date from 1929-30; they are charming miniatures ideally suited to the unique partnership of Peter Pears and Benjamin Britten. The wonder is that with Holst setting each syllable to a separate note, they sound remarkably like Britten’s Hardy settings in the cycle Winter Words, with the final song, “Betelgeuse”, the most powerful. This is a valuable set not otherwise available complete on CD.

The part-songs that follow – a varied selection including an early “Ave Maria” for women’s voices in eight parts, revealing that Holst, having been a choir-trainer, could handle voices masterfully – again feature the Purcell Singers under Imogen Holst. The Three Welsh Folk Songs for mixed voices come from a set of 12, and they lead to the striking “Song of the Blacksmith”, with the onomatopoeic refrain “kang ki-ki kang”. The selection ends with a carol featuring the medieval words “Bring us in good ale”.

Most valuable of all is the work many regard as Holst’s masterpiece – The Hymn of Jesus, vividly caught in this 1962 recording. Dating from 1920, it has echoes of The Planets in the hypnotic pivoting ostinatos for chorus and the offstage sequences of parallel chords highly evocative in the layering of textures. Boult, who made a speciality of conducting this work, is the masterly conductor with BBC forces. One hopes for more equally illuminating issues from Decca Eloquence.